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American democratic ideals, civic republicanism, public morality, and Christianity were the dominant forces at work during South Dakota’s formative decade.

What?

In our cynical age, such a claim seems either remarkably naïve or hopelessly outdated. Territorial politics in the late-nineteenth-century West is typically viewed as a closed-door game of unprincipled opportunism or is caricatured, as in the classic film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, as a drunken exercise in bombast and rascality.

Now Jon K. Lauck examines anew the values we like to think were at work during the founding of our western states. Taking Dakota Territory as a laboratory for examining a formative stage of western politics, Lauck finds that settlers from New England and the Midwest brought democratic practices and republican values to the northern plains and invoked them as guiding principles in the drive for South Dakota statehood.

Prairie Republic corrects an overemphasis on class conflict and economic determinism, factors posited decades ago by such historians as Howard R. Lamar. Instead, Lauck finds South Dakota’s political founders to be agents of Protestant Christianity and of civic republicanism—an age-old ideology that entrusted the polity to independent, landowning citizens who placed the common interest above private interest. Focusing on the political culture widely shared among settlers attracted to the Great Dakota Boom of the 1880s, Lauck shows how they embraced civic virtue, broad political participation, and agrarian ideals. Family was central in their lives, as were common-school education, work, and Christian community.

In rescuing the story of Dakota’s settlers from historical obscurity, Prairie Republic dissents from the recent darker portrayal of western history and expands our view and understanding of the American democratic tradition.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Seldom is a major aspect of a historical period researched, written, and interpreted as brilliantly as Jon Lauck has done here. This very important book not only adds much to South Dakota history but also demonstrates methods and approaches that could well be used in studying other pioneer territories in the Midwest.—Gilbert C. Fite, author of The Farmers’ Frontier, 1865–1900

About the Author

Jon K. Lauck is Senior Advisor to U.S. Senator John Thune of South Dakota. An attorney and a professional historian, Lauck is the author of several books, including The Lost Region: Toward a Revival of Midwestern History (University of Iowa Press, 2013), and Prairie Republic: The Political Culture of Dakota Territory, 1879-1889 (OUP, 2010).

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GREAT Book!! My husband has nearly read from cover to cover. Loves history-type books such as this & has been completely intrigued by it from the first page! A must read if you like history & all it has to offer!

This was a very well researched and well written book on the social and political culture of Dakota territory in the ten years leading up to statehood. It should be noted that the book is primarily centered on eastern Dakota territory. One of the reviewers on this site stated that Lauck was reading his sources romantically, and mistaking political rhetoric for popular opinion and values. I strongly disagree. In reading the end notes, it is at once apparent that Lauck extensively researched his thesis. He did not rely on political speeches, but extensively used personal memoirs, letters and journals, as well as statistical analysis, especially in analyzing demographic participation in the three constitutional conventions in 1883, 1885 and 1889. The book was very well balanced, as shown by his exploration of anti-Catholic attitudes during the Grant administration. Chapter 5 is a fascinating historiographical essay and should be used as a guide for the material which he explored in previous chapters. In chapter 5, Lauck explores the research, background and writing of Lamar's groundbreaking work, Dakota Territory. Lauck dissects the anti-Turner agenda which was prevelant among New West scholars in the 1950's, and how this heavily influenced modern progressive and leftist researchers more recently. He also explores the influences on Lamar, as well as how Lamar's views changed over the years until he was at odds with the modern progressive scholarship. In the epilogue, Lauck presents convincing evidence of the "social capital" built up during this decade in the 19th century which still exists in eastern South Dakota today. I found it very interesting that he mentions the social critic Christopher Lasch, whose own research into the changing social fabric of the nation lends support to Lauck's secondary thesis on the prevelance of republican participation in church and community. Overall an excellent book which presents a microcosm of western society as a cautionary tale for the rest of the nation.

We need more scholarly histories in South Dakota because we do not have extensive graduate schools of History in South Dakota. Therefore, this well researched, scholarly book on the history of South Dakota from 1879-1889 is most welcome. It is more than just a South Dakota history, it is a look at a period in our national history with a focus on the political culture of the Dakota territory from 1879-1889.

Professor Lauck wrestles with Frederick Jackson Turner's theories on westward expansion. He also deals with the myth of the left leaning populists developing in South Dakota when in fact, it was more of a Republican culture at that time. He also deals very carefully with some of Bishop Marty's papers and talks about the Catholic-Protestant development in South Dakota. This is a national history book in the sense that he deals with the presidential campaigns and presidents and what they said about South Dakota.

Professor Lauck received a fellowship from Yale University's Beinecke Library to do part of his research and he has several new South Dakota sources. This is one of the best professionally researched and written books on South Dakota history that I have ever seen and I am very grateful for it.

Jon Lauck explores the intriguing political history of the so-called East River country of present-day South Dakota. Of particular interest to this reader was his clear and vibrant discussion of the "Dakota Boom" that presaged much in today's South Dakota, including all of Sioux Country.

"Prairie Republic" was a very refreshing book. It is deeply researched (an insane amount of footnotes) and the product of much hard thinking. It was also an honest look at the settlement of the Midwest and Great Plains and how the settlers established democracy in their new states. The book combines the best of the old and new history. Strongly commended to you all.

Good books about the prairie and plains of this country are quite rare and big ones, like Webb's "The Great Plains," only come along once in a while. "Prairie Republic" is a big one. Not only is it a great read, it's a great analysis of the peopling of Dakota. I assigned it in class last spring and students really responded to it.

This is not history. This is right-wing political revisionism -- which is fine, if you like to read politically motivated re-interpretations of the past rather than a disciplined, dispassionate examination of historical facts. The author is a lawyer and aide to ideologue right-wing senator John Thune; he promotes an exclusively White-Christian agenda -- especially the non-Catholic variety; and he writes occasional rants for the National Review. He is all that, but he's not an historian. He's a propagandist. The theft of Lakota land, and it's subsequent 'opening' to white settlement and later statehood was a catastrophe for native peoples and a boon for large business interests of the age -- the speculators, railroad, banking and real estate interests who ruthlessly exploited the landless poor and promoted their lies about the prospects for prosperity in these northern dry lands. My sons are 6th generation South Dakotans of Scots-Irish descent; our family lived this history. We know what happened here, how it happened, and who profited from whom. This author's lily-whitewash of the shabby and sad history of the early days of Dakota Territory and statehood will be a comfort to Republicans devoted to rewriting American 'history' -- that is, history as political propaganda with a passion for ideology rather then truth.